Recent advances of sugar alcohols phase change materials for thermal energy storage

Sugar alcohol phase change material (PCM) with high latent heat and wide temperature range are widely applied in phase change thermal energy storage (TES) fields such as building energy efficiency and solar thermal utilization. Unfortunately, sugar alcohol-based PCM exist defects such as high supercooling and poor thermal conductivity, which greatly limits their application in TES. This paper comprehensively discusses the current methods employed for improving the thermal properties of sugar alcohols phase change materials, including the introduction of high thermal conductivity materials, encapsulation, coupling porous media, and eutectic formation, while also evaluating the mechanisms and effects of these methods on enhancing the thermal properties of sugar alcohols PCM. In addition, technical challenges, limitations and further prospective research on the thermal properties optimization of sugar alcohols PCM are discussed. It is expected that this paper has certain reference value for the improving thermal properties of sugar alcohols PCM.